It may seem like a conspiracy that China is controlling global warming, but a new study has revealed that this could inadvertently be the case.
Researchers at China’s Ocean University have found that the country has been creating “heat spots” over the northeastern Pacific between 2010 and 2020.
The team noted that temperatures had warmed by up to 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit from the Bering Strait and traveling 1,000 miles to the Gulf of Alaska, causing fish kills, toxic algae blooms and whales to disappear.
However, the warming events were found to be coming from China. agenda for reduce aerosol emissions, which are pollution that can have a Cooling effect on Earth because it acts like a mirror, reflecting the sun’s heat back into space.
Researchers have now warned the Chinese government that it should reconsider its ban on aerosols, saying the lack of them will continue to raise temperatures in the region.
Researchers at China’s Ocean University have found that the country has been creating “heat spots” over the northeast Pacific from 2010 to 2020.
The nation has experienced unprecedented heat waves in the last decade, such as in 2015, when temperatures reached 125 degrees.
And in 2010 China recorded a temperature of more than 104 degrees, which may support the researchers’ findings.
In the latest study, researchers noted that heat wave patterns appeared to begin after the Chinese government successfully reduced aerosol emissions, such as sulfate, from factories and power plants in 2010.
The team created 12 computer climate models that were run under two conditions: the first was for East Asia’s emissions to remain stable, while the other reflected the decline over the past decade.
They found that models in which emissions had not decreased did not change temperatures in other regions, while those that reduced aerosol levels experienced heat waves in the northeastern parts of the Pacific.
The models revealed why cleaner air meant warmer temperatures: As less heat was reflected back into space, rising temperatures triggered high-pressure systems that are associated with warmer, drier temperatures during the summer and a climate milder during the winter.
The team noted that temperatures were rising 0.72 degrees Fahrenheit each decade from the Bering Strait and traveling 1,000 miles to the Gulf of Alaska, which has caused fish kills, toxic algae blooms and whale disappearances.
In turn, high-pressure systems forming above Earth’s atmosphere caused low-pressure systems in the Pacific to become more intense.
When this happened, the Aleutian Low, which carries warm air from the Aleutian Islands into the northeastern Pacific, developed a greater range and weakened the winds that would normally cool the sea surface, resulting in warmer conditions.
This has had disastrous impacts, not only on sea temperature and marine life, but has also had socioeconomic impacts such as the California drought from 2013 to 2016 that cost billions of dollars in agricultural losses in the United States and killed to more than 100 million trees.
“These serious ecological and social consequences indicate the urgency of revealing the causes of these emerging climate extremes,” the study states.
Although limiting aerosol emissions contributes to global warming, increasing levels cause the premature death of eight million people a year worldwide, according to NASA.
Tiny aerosol particles, such as sulfate or nitrate, are emitted during the combustion of fossil fuels and, when inhaled, can cause asthma, respiratory infections, lung cancer and heart disease.
In the study from China’s Ocean University, researchers said their latest findings highlight the need to consider what risks arise from reducing aerosol emissions. and called on government agencies to reassess their impact on climate change.